Optical measuring means applied in machines and instruments



Jan. 30, 1945. F. TURRE TTINI 1,

OI TICAL MEASURING MEANS APPLIED IN MACHINES AND INSTRUMENTS Filed July 29, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet 1' 17' Tuzre ttaQa/v" Jan. 30, 1945. F. TURRETTINI 2,358,434 I OPTICAL MEASURING MEANS APPLIED IN MACHINES AND INSTRUMENTS Filed July 29, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 4 Po 9 Q S x O N h-venior iii often called parallax.

Patented Jan. 30, 19 45 v UNITED' STATES OPTICAL MEASURING MEANS APPLIED IN 4 MACHINES AND INSTRUMENTS Fernaml Turrettini, Bellevue-Geneva, Switzerland, asslgnor to. Societe Genevolse dlnstruments dePhyslque, Geneva, Switzerland, a firm of Switzerland Application July 29,

1942, Serial No. 452,792

In Switzerland October 22, 1 941 4.0mm. (ores-1).

. Machines-tools equipped with optical measurmg means are known, in particular the jig borers. In all these machines, the optical measurement is made by means of a microscope sighting a pre- .cision graduated rule which is always placed below,

that the table, depending on the sinuosities of,

the slides that guide it, incurs small deviations in ts movement of translation. The graduated rule 1s used for measuring the amplitude of the displacements that must be imparted to the workpiece placed on the work-table in order that the breach of the machine may engage the upper surface of this piece in predetermined points.

If u expresses the angle of the deviation incurred by the table in the course of its transla- 25 wire at the main focus of its objective and with tion, the points of engagement of the broach will be afiected by an error p. tan a, if p expresses the distance from the point of attack of the breach to the division of the rule, distance measured perpendicularly to the rule. This value p is One can eliminate the horizontal component of this error by disposing the rule in a vertical plane parallel to the slides and containin the.

axis of the broach, but it has not been possible, up to the present, to eliminate'the vertical component because, on account of the above men,-

tioned constructive necessities, the graduated rule placed under the table finds itself obligatorily much lower than the surface of the workpiece. 9 represents in this case the level difference ex isting between the surface of the workpiece and the horizontal plane containing the graduation of the rule.

To put it clearly, thisplane will be called, in

the following, the plane of measurement. In

other words, a machine thus constructed is only,

The vertical component of the error due to the deviation will be as much the greater as the workpiece will be larger. The term 1:. tan a can be quite appreciable and represents in known constructions several microns.

The advantage of the improvements that mak the object of the present invention is to attenuate considerably this drawback by bringing the plane of measurement above the table to the average height of the surface of theworkpieces. It creates at this level a virtual plane of measurement, in which the vertical component of the error is absolutely eliminated. In practice, this component will only subsist for the distanceremaining between the actual level of the workpiece and the virtual plane of measurement.

These improvements to the optical measuring means, applied in machines and instruments provided with a precision rule used for evaluating the displacements of a slider and an optical system sighting the rule, are characterized by: A first stationary objective fixed on the bed on which moves the slider and having its main focus in the plane of the rule,

A reading telescope fixed on the movable slider, adjusted for infinite and provided with a crossan ocular sighting this cross-wire And by at least one optical mirror,

The whole to the effect of creating a virtual plane of measurement located in the work-zone above the rule, and distant from the latter by a dimension equal to the focal length of the sta tionary objective, and thus to reduce considerin the vertical plane.

' The attached drawingsrepresent, by way of example, an embodiment of the improvements views in cross-section, in two different working- 40 positions.

. In the embodiment represented, l isthe workpiece laid on a work-table Ii which is part of the slider 1 moving itselfon a slide ll! of the bed l-9.

The surface that the piece presents to the tool graduation lies in the plane Pm. This rule is fixed by usual means 8 and 9 on the slider I and follows consequently all the travels of this slider. The slider I carries a reading-telescope l8 comprising an objective l5 of focal distance F, a cross- I wire It at, the main focus ofthis objective and an ocular H; r designates the centre of the crosswire 16 taken arbitrarily as the origin of the measurements in the following explanations. 66 An objective H of focal distance F fixed with a y the errors due to a deviation of the slide;

making the object of the invention (applied in a,

is in P0; 2 is the precision graduated rule whose working broach 3 is mounted on the bed I. by m means not shown. I l

The distance 321 separates the surface P0 of the workpiece from the plane of measurement Pm.

The rays issued from the point c, which {or the clearness of the explanation is supposed tobe on the vertical of point Q (what is not at all indispensable), after having traversed the objective II and the prism l3, will be sent :back in the form of a parallel beam it along the optical axis II-II; they penetrate into the objective I5 and go converging to the centre 1' of the cross-wire it, where they form the image of point 0, whatever may be thedistance separating the objective l5 from the prism l3. The image of point 0 will appear on the cross-wire enlarged in theratio F/f.

In Fig. 2, the slider in moving on tjle slide 10, is supposed to have incurred an angular deviation a due toan imperfection of the slide, which has been greatly enlarged in Fig. 2 for the cleamess of the drawings.

One can always consider a sinuous translation movement as the result of a parallel displacement followed by a rotation movement around a centre chosen arbitrarily. In Fig.2, the slider is supposed to have effected a parallel motion followed by a rotation of the value a around'the point 01, which the optical axis 1-! reaches at the end of the parallel motion. The tool will no =more engage the workpiece ingi, which would be the co-respective of c: in relation with 9,- but in 40 gr. The error due to the deviation would thus be 91-92, that is m. tan a, if the invention were not attenuating it.

The rays emitted by the point c1, which lies will be observed'in true size, that is to say that the displacement observed on the rule 2 will be equal to the actual distance separating the points of attack of the tool g and ya on an object having its upper face in the virtual plane of measurement. In other words, there will be no error since the measurment made with the reading-telescope will correspond to the reality of the facts, in'spite of the deviation of the slide.

If the surface of the object does not lie in the virtual plane of measurement, but that it is separated from it by a distance 732, the error due to a deviation a of the slide will only be pr. tan a, which, in any case, will be appreciably smaller than the error pi. tan on existing in all the machines before the present invention. It is not at all necessary that the optical axis I-I coincides with the geometrical axis of the practically negligible, because tana will be of the order of 10"" with slides of ordinary quality. The optical axis of the reading-telescope it could obviously be bent by successive reflections on v ,prisms in order to bring the ocular I1 into a position suitable for the observer.

The table could also be provided with a second optical mirror and with a straight reading-tale scope facing the latter. Moreover, the ocular of the reading-telescope could be provided with an ocular micrometer in order to ensure more precise readings. l

The applications of the invention are not at all limited to machines, but can be extended to any kind of optical measuring apparatuses provided with a precision rule and an optical system for observing its displacements.

What I claim is:

1. In combination, a stationary support, a work holding table slidable on said support, a rule carried by the table, a fixed stationary objective carried by the support arranged with its axis disposed in the plane of said rule and having a focal on the optical axis 1-1 of the objective H, conlength approximating the a e istance betinue to penetrate into the objective IS in the form of a parallel beam II which has incurred no alteration in itself. They do not converge any more in 1', :but in 11, since the reading-telescope l8 has incurred the same deviation 0: as the slider- I to which it belongs.

When the slider 1 moves from left to right in the direction of the arrow, the image of a point of the rule 2 moves on the cross-wire [6 in the direction of r towards n. The distance r-rr, which is equal to F.tan it, corresponds thus, for the observer, to an excess of displacement of the rule 2. In fact, it is equivalent on the graduation of this rule to an excess of displacement of F.12alla G where that is of J. tan 6:, whereas the point of attack of the tool 4 hasincurre'd an excess of displacement One sees that in the virtual plane of measurement P-distance of I from the plane of measurement containing the surface of the rule Pm-the tween the surface of the work piece on said table and said rule, a reading telescope movable with the table including an objective and a cross-wire at the focus thereof and an ocular, and means for reflecting the image of said rule formed by the stationary objective for sighting through said reading telescope.

2. In combination. a stationary support, a work holding table slidable on said support,- a rule carried by the table, a fixed stationary objective carried 'by the support arranged with its axis disposed in the plane of said rule and having a focal length approximating the average distance between the surface of the work piece on said table 50 and said rule, a reading telescope movabl with the table including an objective and a cross-wire at the focus thereof and an'ocular, and means for reflecting the image of said rule formed by the stationary objective for sighting through said reading telescope, the-axis of-the objective of the telescope being disposed parallel to the direction of sliding movement of the table.

effect of an error due to a deviation of the slide 76 and said rule, a. reading telescope m vable with the table including an objective and a cross-wire at the focus thereof and an ocular, and means for reflecting the image of said rule formed by the stationary objective for sighting through said reading telescope, the axis of the objective of the telescope being disposed parallel to the direction ofsliding' movement of the table and the axis of the stationar objective being disposed perpendicularly t0. the table.

direction or movement or said 4. An arrangement as ci'aimed'in claiin 1, char- 5 acterized by the provision of an'ocular micrometer provided on'the ocular of the reading telescope.

FERNAND TURRE'IIINI. 

